Mobile technology is changing the way we approach all aspects of our lives, including our vehicles. Today’s apps have the ability to streamline and simplify much of what we do in our car, from where we get gas and how much we pay for it to which route we take to work every day. There are even apps that can warn you of a potential collision or analyze your car’s computer and help you complete simple fixes on your own.

Here are some apps that will help ease being a car owner and make the experience as smooth as possible.

Scout

The only app that lets you chat, plan Meet Ups with friends and get turn-by-turn GPS voice directions. Now you can navigate, coordinate and communicate without the hassle of multiple apps. Find the best route with real time traffic and commute alerts. Customize your directions with a swipe of a finger. Keep in touch on the go with voice chat and messaging. Instantly share your location, route and ETA with the friends you choose from your contact list. Make a pit stop on your route and find the cheapest gas, restaurants and other local amenities all while avoiding police speed traps and traffic jams along the way.

iOnRoad

iOnRoad is a free augmented reality driving safety app. The program uses the GPS feature, gyroscope and video camera stream of the native mobile device to monitor a vehicle’s position on the road, alerting drivers of lane departures and potential collisions with audio and visual cues. The program’s primary purpose is to protect cars from being involved in an accident. The application measures the vehicle’s headway distance, alerting the driver to his speed, and proximity to the traffic ahead. The app also assigns points for safe driving tactics, allowing other iOnRoad drives to compete for the title of safest driver.

Find my Car

It is a simple application that uses GPS location services to help you find your car. You will never forget where you parked. Save your car position on the map or take a picture and associate a short description to help fully document the parking spot. To find your car again, locate your last car position on the map. The distance to your car is displayed in real time as you walk in the street. You can also see the best walking direction from your current position to your parked location.

Torque

Torque is a vehicle / car performance / diagnostics tool and scanner that uses an OBD II Bluetooth adapter to connect to your OBD2 engine management / ECU. Layout your own dashboard with the widgets / gauges you want. It can use the GPS to provide tracker logs with OBD engine logging so you can see what you were doing at any point in time. It can also show and reset a DTC / CEL / fault code like a scantool. Helps you fix your car and helps keep repair costs down.

iWrecked

It is a full-featured auto accident assistant for easily logging all details, photos and info after being involved in a collision. This app aims to be the data collection point for all the relative information regarding your accident. It prompts you to enter the information that you may not be thinking about at the moment. Since your iPhone is also a camera, you can even insert the pictures you take.

Vlingo

The InCar feature, available on all Vlingo-supported devices, is the first and only completely hands free InCar solution that allows you to send and receive messages, make calls, and get directions while keeping two hands on the wheel, and two eyes on the road. InCar requires 2.2 and a Bluetooth or wired headset in order to function as designed.

FuelLog

Track and log your mileage, fuel consumption, maintenances, services and costs of your car or motorbike and know exactly how much your car costs. FuelLog calculates a lot of useful statistics like fuel consumption and economy of your car or other vehicle, total cost and mileage, average cost per distance or gas amount, average cost per month, year and driven distances, expenses and a lot more.

Dashboard

It is both a speedometer and a Car Home dock replacement app. Use this app to watch your speed and easily access 20 customizable shortcuts. The app automatically launches when placed in a car dock (that has a magnet or similar). Avoid getting a speeding ticket by keeping track and being alerted of your speed accurately via GPS.

Navmii

Navmii (formerly Navfree) is a free community-based navigation and traffic app for drivers.
Navmii combines voice-guided navigation, live traffic information, local search, points of interest and driver scores. Enjoy offline maps stored locally that you can use at home or abroad without an internet connection.

TuneIn Radio

With over 100,000 radio stations, TuneIn has the largest selection of sports, news, music and talk radio from around the world. You can stream real radio stations from around the world live. Listen to your favorite talk shows and podcasts live and on demand and enjoy live coverage of sporting events, concerts and more.